Illini Iceman

Oh well, maybe Guzman will be so bad we can get him through waivers. I don't see any way at this point that Lou is going to want to put him on the active roster to start the season.

I think Guzman is scheduled to pitch today. I hope he has a good outing. Would really be disappointed if the Cubs wind up releasing him after all this time and him finally getting close to where he looks like he might be able to stay healthy.

I hate to offend the sensibilities of guys like Bob Costas and George Will but the big home run years of Sosa / McGuire / Bonds were pretty darn cool. Some of my best times as a Cubs fan were during that '98 home run chase waiting for Sammy to hit one and watching the score board to see if Big Mac had matched. Admittedly it is just as well it is over and things are back to normal but it did make for some good entertainment before all the steroids stuff came out, and that's what MLB is supposed to be, entertainment, right? You can say the stats and how they compare to other generations need to be debated, but to pretend it wasn't a fun thing to watch and that we should all just erase it from our memories like it didn't happen is pretty silly.

They way that reads makes me think they are close to releasing him.

Sorry mom. Let me try again. German is a no risk signing that costs the Cubs very little and potentially could help in case the Cubs have injuries and need a short term solution to fill the gap. It seems worthwhile since it did not cost them anything and if he does not work out there is no down side. Is that better? Or do I need to throw in an obligatory stale joke about middle infielders in a weak attempt at humor even though it is no longer relevant?

Yeah, Hendry with that whopping 3 middle infielders on his 40 man roster! Two are his starting SS and 2B, but this dope also has an extra one to make three! How redundant!! He is in love with middle infielders! And did we mention Hendry is fat? Maybe he also acquired some doughnuts, ha, ha, ha!! I'm not singling this year out. It's a combination of the past few years. And I didn't make a fat joke, you did. Think about the correlation, you will figure it out.

Yeah, Hendry with that whopping 3 middle infielders on his 40 man roster! Two are his starting SS and 2B, but this dope also has an extra one to make three! How redundant!! He is in love with middle infielders! And did we mention Hendry is fat? Maybe he also acquired some doughnuts, ha, ha, ha!!

Well let me ask you...what is the Big 10 pecking order at this point? I am thinking.... MSU Illinois Purdue Wisconsin Ohio State Michigan Minnesota Penn State I personally believe all 8 should be in...but if the committee decides that the Big Ten doesn't deserve 8 teams, its pretty clear that Penn State is the team that as of right now is the team that's out. I think PSU should be in though, I think they have the potential to make a run in the NCAAs. I think Penn State is in unless a couple crazy things happen in the conference tourneys. As of this moment they are probably in the top 64 and need to hope a lot of favorites win in the next few days. Miami and Providence losing today helped solidify their position.

If he is that mentally fragile he was not going to last long in the closer's role anyway.

Probably just about the last team we would have wanted to take him. Pittsburgh sure does love the lefties with injury histories. Fixed that for you. :D I checked Veal's stats today and he is not doing too bad but he does have 5 walks in 5 innings pitched so that may be of some concern to the Pirates. On the other hand, David Patton looked like he has pretty good stuff in the one inning I saw him pitch in the game yesterday. Admittedly this is a very small sample size but he looks to have the potential to pitch in middle relief and be pretty effective. May come down to whether they want to keep him or Guzman since they will most likely lose either of those guys if they don't make the 25 man roster out of spring training and most likely won't have room for both.

Of all the arguments that can be made for why Soriano may not be worth the contract he was given, where he bats in the order has to be one of the most unimportant.

How does having Pedro at the back end of the bullpent push Heilman, Marshall and Gaudin to the pen and Shark to Iowa? Who is the fifth starter? While this all sounds nice it is not going to work anyway IMO because Pedro is not going to take some low base, incentive laden deal. He is going to want relatively significant money guaranteed for at least a year and I don't see the Cubs doing that.

Zambrano sucked for a lot of last season and 2007 was Hill's best year. So what's your point? Zambrano at his worst matches Hill at his best. I guess I can agree with that. Carlos Zambrano had a 4.52 ERA when removing his best month in 2007. Fine. You win. Rich Hill and Zambrano are equal pitchers. Next can we compare Ryan Theriot to Aramis Ramirez as hitters based on batting average? Almost everyone liked Rich Hill. Then he flamed out. I don't see why some people expect undying love and loyalty from all fans for a guy that had one pretty good season. Rich Hill was better in 2007 than Zambrano was in 2007 or 2008 If 2007 Rich Hill would like to come back I would love to see him in the rotation. I will also fill out that rotation with 1976 Mark Fidrych, 2003 Mark Prior and 1981 Fernando Valenzuela. Unfortunately, I want the 2009 versions of none of those pitchers taking the mound for the Cubs every 5th day. So again, I don't see what the point is. People liked Hill when he was good. Now that he can't throw strikes and has no options remaining, time to move on. Sean Marshall seems to have a chance to be a pretty comparable pitcher to the "good" Rich Hill. I would rather take my chances with him instead of having to sweat out every start with Hill and wonder if he is going to be effective. hey einstein, no one is arguing the cubs shouldn't have traded hill. also, learn math. Wow, I am shocked it took you this long to swoop in and defend your boy. He's not "defending his boy." He's pointing out, as others also have, how this most recent tangent seemingly arguing that people were against trading Hill when he was traded was created out of nowhere is actually against nobody. That i's being propped up by the oh-so-brilliant "take out their best performances..." argument is just cake. I can't speak for everyone else but this is where I started: The implication was that somehow Z and Hill were equals and people like Z because of his antics and don't give Hill the same treatment. I don't agree in the whole just throwing out months thing, but overall it is fair to say that Hill had a pretty good run of sucssess then suddenly lost it. Making it seem like somehow he should get the same overall respect and benefit of the doubt as a pitcher as Z does not make sense to me.

Zambrano sucked for a lot of last season and 2007 was Hill's best year. So what's your point? Zambrano at his worst matches Hill at his best. I guess I can agree with that. Carlos Zambrano had a 4.52 ERA when removing his best month in 2007. Fine. You win. Rich Hill and Zambrano are equal pitchers. Next can we compare Ryan Theriot to Aramis Ramirez as hitters based on batting average? Almost everyone liked Rich Hill. Then he flamed out. I don't see why some people expect undying love and loyalty from all fans for a guy that had one pretty good season. Rich Hill was better in 2007 than Zambrano was in 2007 or 2008 If 2007 Rich Hill would like to come back I would love to see him in the rotation. I will also fill out that rotation with 1976 Mark Fidrych, 2003 Mark Prior and 1981 Fernando Valenzuela. Unfortunately, I want the 2009 versions of none of those pitchers taking the mound for the Cubs every 5th day. So again, I don't see what the point is. People liked Hill when he was good. Now that he can't throw strikes and has no options remaining, time to move on. Sean Marshall seems to have a chance to be a pretty comparable pitcher to the "good" Rich Hill. I would rather take my chances with him instead of having to sweat out every start with Hill and wonder if he is going to be effective. hey einstein, no one is arguing the cubs shouldn't have traded hill. also, learn math. Wow, I am shocked it took you this long to swoop in and defend your boy. He's not "defending his boy." He's pointing out, as others also have, how this most recent tangent seemingly arguing that people were against trading Hill when he was traded was created out of nowhere is actually against nobody. That i's being propped up by the oh-so-brilliant "take out their best performances..." argument is just cake. I can't speak for everyone else but this is where I started: The implication was that somehow Z and Hill were equals and people like Z because of his antics and don't give Hill the same benefit of the doubt. I don't agree in the whole just throwing out months thing, but overall it is fair to say that Hill had a pretty good run of sucssess then suddenly lost it. Making it seem like somehow he should get the same overall respect and benefit of the doubt as a pitcher as Z does not make sense to me.

Zambrano sucked for a lot of last season and 2007 was Hill's best year. So what's your point? Zambrano at his worst matches Hill at his best. I guess I can agree with that. Carlos Zambrano had a 4.52 ERA when removing his best month in 2007. Fine. You win. Rich Hill and Zambrano are equal pitchers. Next can we compare Ryan Theriot to Aramis Ramirez as hitters based on batting average? Almost everyone liked Rich Hill. Then he flamed out. I don't see why some people expect undying love and loyalty from all fans for a guy that had one pretty good season. Rich Hill was better in 2007 than Zambrano was in 2007 or 2008 If 2007 Rich Hill would like to come back I would love to see him in the rotation. I will also fill out that rotation with 1976 Mark Fidrych, 2003 Mark Prior and 1981 Fernando Valenzuela. Unfortunately, I want the 2009 versions of none of those pitchers taking the mound for the Cubs every 5th day. So again, I don't see what the point is. People liked Hill when he was good. Now that he can't throw strikes and has no options remaining, time to move on. Sean Marshall seems to have a chance to be a pretty comparable pitcher to the "good" Rich Hill. I would rather take my chances with him instead of having to sweat out every start with Hill and wonder if he is going to be effective. hey einstein, no one is arguing the cubs shouldn't have traded hill. also, learn math. Wow, I am shocked it took you this long to swoop in and defend your boy. I don't think I've ever even conversed with abuck on here, so I don't know what that's supposed to mean. Believe it or not, every single post on this board is not directed at you.

Didn't see this one coming... http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3942163 The Royals must think they can compete in the AL Central this season. Still seems like a bit of a waste of resources (salary and 2nd round draft pick) for them.

From most of what I have heard, if Manny doesn't sign Juan Pierre is the every day leftfielder for the Dodgers. I wonder what the difference in projected runs and/or wins for the Dodgers there is between having Manny out there every day versus Pierre. The real joke is that if they could just take back the awful deals for Jones and Pierre they would have plenty of money. I think I read somewhere that their projected payroll right now without Manny is only in the $70M range.

Zambrano sucked for a lot of last season and 2007 was Hill's best year. So what's your point? Zambrano at his worst matches Hill at his best. I guess I can agree with that. Carlos Zambrano had a 4.52 ERA when removing his best month in 2007. Fine. You win. Rich Hill and Zambrano are equal pitchers. Next can we compare Ryan Theriot to Aramis Ramirez as hitters based on batting average? Almost everyone liked Rich Hill. Then he flamed out. I don't see why some people expect undying love and loyalty from all fans for a guy that had one pretty good season. Rich Hill was better in 2007 than Zambrano was in 2007 or 2008 If 2007 Rich Hill would like to come back I would love to see him in the rotation. I will also fill out that rotation with 1976 Mark Fidrych, 2003 Mark Prior and 1981 Fernando Valenzuela. Unfortunately, I want the 2009 versions of none of those pitchers taking the mound for the Cubs every 5th day. So again, I don't see what the point is. People liked Hill when he was good. Now that he can't throw strikes and has no options remaining, time to move on. Sean Marshall seems to have a chance to be a pretty comparable pitcher to the "good" Rich Hill. I would rather take my chances with him instead of having to sweat out every start with Hill and wonder if he is going to be effective. hey einstein, no one is arguing the cubs shouldn't have traded hill. also, learn math. Wow, I am shocked it took you this long to swoop in and defend your boy.

Bruce's blog: Confirmed in an article on cubs.com. You have to confirm what I've told you? a good message board poster always gets multiple sources. I can live with that, then. If he makes the team I hope it is at the expense of Gaithright, not Hoff. However, since Hoff has options and the Cubs would have to eat the Gaithright contract I have my doubts.

Zambrano sucked for a lot of last season and 2007 was Hill's best year. So what's your point? Zambrano at his worst matches Hill at his best. I guess I can agree with that. Carlos Zambrano had a 4.52 ERA when removing his best month in 2007. Fine. You win. Rich Hill and Zambrano are equal pitchers. Next can we compare Ryan Theriot to Aramis Ramirez as hitters based on batting average? Almost everyone liked Rich Hill. Then he flamed out. I don't see why some people expect undying love and loyalty from all fans for a guy that had one pretty good season. Rich Hill was better in 2007 than Zambrano was in 2007 or 2008 If 2007 Rich Hill would like to come back I would love to see him in the rotation. I will also fill out that rotation with 1976 Mark Fidrych, 2003 Mark Prior and 1981 Fernando Valenzuela. Unfortunately, I want the 2009 versions of none of those pitchers taking the mound for the Cubs every 5th day. So again, I don't see what the point is. People liked Hill when he was good. Now that he can't throw strikes and has no options remaining, time to move on. Sean Marshall seems to have a chance to be a pretty comparable pitcher to the "good" Rich Hill. I would rather take my chances with him instead of having to sweat out every start with Hill and wonder if he is going to be effective.

Zambrano sucked for a lot of last season and 2007 was Hill's best year. So what's your point? Zambrano at his worst matches Hill at his best. I guess I can agree with that. Carlos Zambrano had a 4.52 ERA when removing his best month in 2007. Fine. You win. Rich Hill and Zambrano are equal pitchers. Next can we compare Ryan Theriot to Aramis Ramirez as hitters based on batting average? Almost everyone liked Rich Hill. Then he flamed out. I don't see why some people expect undying love and loyalty from all fans for a guy that had one pretty good season.

Zambrano sucked for a lot of last season and 2007 was Hill's best year. So what's your point? Zambrano at his worst matches Hill at his best. I guess I can agree with that.

Cause he's a headcase, one pitch rich, doesn't show emotion, etc. Yeah, you are right, there a bunch of fans that just irrationally want him to fail. And Matt Murton. If you go ahead and throw out his worst month his numbers are still not that great. If Hill had the same career to date with some other club I find it hard to believe that anyone would be looking for the Cubs to be trying to pick him up this offseason. At this point he is project with no options remaining that a contending team with a pretty good pitching staff can not afford to carry.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9274196/If/when-Manny-signs,-will-he-be-happy? Funny. I bet if the roles were reversed, Casey Blake turned down a couple contract offers, and Manny made that exact same quote, people would be blasting him for being a clubhouse cancer or something like that. haha the situations wouldn't even be close to the same. i love the people who are defending manny on this one. THE DODGERS ARE NOT BIDDING AGAINST ANYONE ELSE. almost everybody is taking significantly less than what they hoped to get this year, but manny think he's above that. 2/45 of rmanny is more than fair, but that's not even the point. why would the dodgers offer more when nobody else is? does manny not understand how it works? eff him. Why would the Dodgers offer him more when nobody else is? Because they want him on their team and need his services as a baseball player. Just because no one else values him as much does not mean he doesn't have leverage. He would only not have leverage if no one (including the Dodgers) needed him. It may make the Dodgers feel better if they tell him to walk but they probably also then won't make the playoffs and will have an unsuccessful season. Therefore, they have to figure out if the extra $5M is worth possibly blowing their chances to be a championship team. Manny and Boras are betting that they won't take that chance and will eventually give him the money he wants.

Sullivan was far from the only one. But I think Hendry's words, that he traded DeRosa and then signed Miles so he could get more left handed is much more likely to be the answer. I guess they were all wrong just like they were on the Peavy "done deal" stuff. Since Fontenot is the LH side of that platoon and he was already on the team signing Miles doesn't make the Cubs more left handed. Putting Bradley in LF is primarily what Hendry indicated made the Cubs more left handed and his actions point to the fact that he needed to clear the DeRosa and Marquis salary to make room to sign him.